Twitter Quitters: Why Celebrities Ditch The Social Network

Just over a month after actress Jennifer Love Hewitt announced she was getting engaged to Brian Hallisay, her co-star on The Client List,the 34-year-old mother-to-be announced she had disengaged from Twitter. In a series of tweets, she explained her account @TheReal_Jlh had recently been inundated with threatening messages:

Hewitt is one of the latest celebrities to part ways with the micro-blogging tool. While 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin has sworn off Twitter several times – after marrying Hilaria Thomas and after American Airlines kicked him off a flight for playing Words with Friends – he told Vanity Fair early last week that he was inspired to “never” tweet again after attending the funeral for Sopranos star James Gandolfini, who didn’t tweet. Meanwhile, pop artist Lady Gaga seems to have been on a Twitter hiatus since February, having posted only occasional retweets and changing her avatar to an egg.

Whether these celebs decide to return to Twitter or not, here are some other entertainers who have made especially memorable breaks from the social network:

Demi Lovato (2012): The singer tweeted, “Who allows me to have this thing anyways?!!! I just get myself in trouble!” A couple of weeks before she decided to make the break from Twitter official, she ranted about God in a series of tweets: “Sometimes it seems like God just keeps throwing crap my way and I get SO angry with him…umm Really dude?”)

John Mayer (2010): He left behind more than 3.7 million followers because he had become a “tweetaholic.” His reps also claimed they were only using the account to promote a particular tour. Turns out he likes Tumblr more.

Miley Cyrus (2009): The former Disney star rapped a “goodbye” to Twitter via a YouTube video, which racked up more than 18.5 million views. Entertainment Weekly says she opted to delete her account because her fiancé Liam Hemsworth didn’t have one. But she’s back tweeting here.